Beijing Day 6

07.13.08

Today, we officially took A VACATION FROM OUR VACATION:

GERMAN BRUNCH
WANGFUJIN STREET
SILK ALLEY
TIM’S TEXAS BBQ

Today, we decided to just relax and take a break from ancient history. It is possible to find quite a bit of the west in the east.

We headed back to the German bakery for the most amazing breakfast. We were clueless regarding their portion sizes so this breakfast also became lunch.

After the bountiful breakfast, we decided to head back to Wangfujing Street which we visited briefly on our first day. There was so much left to explore.

This Olympic Flagship store has absolutely everything you could imagine.

Once we got to Wangfujing Street, Schäfer was tired so we took advantage of the moment and headed to the foreign language bookstore.

The 4th floor of the Foreign Language Bookstore has such a wonderful selection of children’s books at not-so-wonderful prices. Ouch! There must be a huge tax on imported books.

They had every travel guide imaginable…except Finland. Sigh. Oh to see a fjord!

Schäfer woke up from his nap in a fussy mood. This vacation has been a challenge for him. Going from running around outside three times a day to being carried in the ergo has had its moments.

I think carrying him so much at the Great Wall (mostly because we wanted him under the umbrella) caused quite the melt down today. Schäfer woke up from his nap and started crying and asking us if he could get down and play. (? ? ????? ? ????)

We popped into this toy store thinking they might have a little play area (hoping for KFC-like at best). After all, their slogan boasts “everything our kid wants”. I asked an attendant on the first floor if there was any little area for kids to play. She said, “Take the escalators down two floors.”

Welcome to Schäfer’s dream come true! Now who’s on vacation? For 20rmb ($2.90) Schäfer could play here for 2 hours.

This place was so huge!

Schäfer’s favorite thing to do was ride in this “Beep! Beep!” When he wasn’t riding in it, he liked to push it around.

There were two other play areas in the basement. This sandbox looked like so much fun!

This is the play area for big kids. It was so nice that they had different places to play depending on ages.

After two hours of hard play (and I mean the boy did not stop), Schäfer was ready for a break. We put him back in the Ergo and headed to Silk Alley.

When I first went to Silk Alley 10 years ago, it was a small alley filled with tourist trinkets, Beanie Babies, North Face jackets, Gap clothing, etc. Maybe factory rejects? Maybe from factory overproduction? Maybe they weren’t Gap clothes at all, but they had Gap tags in them? It was a fun place to go and see familiar brands. Alas, Silk Alley has become this department store.

Inside each vendor has a stall. Nothing is priced. Everything must be bartered down hard. Millions of dollars are spent here each year. The vendors are VERY agressive. We were just walking through looking for a hat and I had several vendors grab my arm and say “Purse! Purse!” or “What do you want?”. Personally, I find this type of shopping very tiring. Thank goodness all we needed was a hat.

Probably the most popular items are these handbags. Gucci. Louis Vuitton. LeSportSac. Coach. They’re all here – at least their brand is

Hubs found a great hat (“Nostalgia” brand – ha!) that will help in sun protection. Once he put the hat on, Schäfer wanted to wear his hat too. Schäfer also kept staying “Papa’s hat! Papa’s hat!” Thus, began the plural possessive and he hasn’t stopped since.

Since breakfast filled us enough for lunch, we decided an early dinner was in order. And since we were on vacation from our vacation, Tim’s Texas BBQ would hit the spot.

After a fun round of darts, we headed back to the apartment satisfied and excited about the next day.

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